Barrels of media ink have been spilled over the 25 million
checks Uncle Sam mailed out as advance refunds on the 2003 child
tax credit. Plenty of attention has been given to other aspects of
the so-called Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of
2003, too, including dividend and capital gains cuts and increased
deductions for business owners. But little notice has been paid to
the one thing that almost all taxpayers can do immediately to take
advantage of the legislation- the withholding from their
paychecks to reflect new, lower marginal tax brackets.

The tax bracket changes are relatively small, so the extra money
in each paycheck won't be enough to overcome fiscal inertia in
many households or to get the nation's financial advisers
clamoring about the oversight. Still, if you don't make the
change, you're paying the government too much money and will
have to wait for your tax refund to get it back.

Under the new law, the 38.6 percent income bracket drops to 35
percent; the 35 percent bracket falls to 33 percent; 30 percent
dips to 28 percent; and 27 percent goes to 25 percent. Plus, the
basic standard deduction jumps for millions of taxpayers. Granted,
it doesn't sound like a lot, but for a married couple filing
jointly and making $75,000 per year (in the new 25 percent
bracket), a tweak in the withholding could add $125 per month to
take-home pay.

For certified financial planner Rick Fingerman, president of
Financial Planning
Solutions Inc. in Medford, Massachusetts, it's an easy
call. "More money in your pocket now is better than more money
left to Uncle Sam until refund time." The exceptions, he says,
are people who can't seem to save other than through
withholding and couples with self-employment income whose taxes
tend to get a little fuzzy each year.

Even the forced savings component tends to be overstated,
Fingerman says. Surveys have shown for years that most people spend
their refunds rather than tuck them into retirement funds or use
them to prepay the mortgage. (Although, to be fair, a substantial
minority does pay debts with the yearly windfall.) Instead, put
that $125 extra from each paycheck in the 401(k) plan, Junior's
education fund, or a more sizable payment on that nagging credit
card balance, and the immediate difference for your finances can be
significant.